This study aims to identify the impact of liquidity risk on expected excess returns of Brazilian corporate bonds in the secondary market. We performed a battery of regression analysis with semiannual unbalanced panel data for 101 securities over eight semesters (first semester of 2006 to the second half of 2009), totaling 382 observations. Seven proxies (bid/ask spread, %zeroreturns, age, amount outstanding, face value, number of bonds, and %time) were used to test the impact of liquidity risk in the yield spreads. Ten other variables (Slope Factor, Credit Risk Factor, risk-free rate, rating, duration, four accounting variables, and equity volatility) were used as yield spread determinants. The null hypothesis that there is no liquidity premium for bonds in the Brazilian secondary market was rejected for only three proxies (bid/ask spread, face value, and number of bonds). The premiums observed were quite small (1.9 basis points for each 100-basis-point increase in the bid/ask spread, 0.5 basis point to 1% face value increase, and 0.17 basis point for each issue of at least 1000 bonds). In both cases we observed a loss of efficiency of liquidity proxies following correction for autocorrelations and potential endogeneity, either through the inclusion of fixed effects, first differences analysis, or simultaneous equation analysis. These results point to the fact that liquidity risks may not be of great importance to the expectations of the Brazilian corporate bond secondary market.
liquidity; corporate bonds; yield to maturity; duration; rating
